An Unexpected Magician, page 8
Justin took over from Winston and described how the gun worked and how bullets were fired. He showed him the peephole as a safety note, and then he let Winston load the bullet and fire two shots, hitting the closest target each time.
“It’s more accurate than a regular pistol?” Keith asked.
Winston showed Keith the shape of the bullet. “The elongated tip pierces the air better, making it shoot straighter but not straight enough to compensate for a poorly aimed shot.
Justin let Keith shoot the pistol first. Keith hit the edge of the close target this time and excitedly waved the gun back and forth. Winston grabbed his hand.
“Safety, Master Mason,” Winston said.
Keith’s eyes grew as he realized his mistake. “Keep the barrel pointed away from everyone, and don’t touch the trigger until you are ready to shoot.”
“Memorizing the words is one thing; following them is even more important,” Winston said. “Justin, your turn.”
Shooting the bullet pistol was a treat for Justin. He hit the target twice, but not in the center. “I need more practice,” he said.
Winston laughed. “Trying to shoot more rounds? Only a few at a time until more bullets come in.”
“You are ordering more?” Justin asked.
“I am.”
Justin wanted to get his own pistols and practice, but Winston declined. “When I’m not training others,” Winston said.
Keith described his shooting experience for Justin, even though Justin was there. Keith was smart enough to recognize he was going on too long.
“Sorry about that. The experience carried me away,” Keith said, blushing.
“Who will be coming to your discussion group?” Justin said, changing the subject to make Keith feel less awkward.
“Darwin Underwood is spending the summer with the Cambers. He is the son of the 3rd Minister of Rites and Protocol. Rebecca Camber is his cousin. The mothers are sisters. The Cambers are in upper, upper society in Manford.”
“Higher than your father?” Justin asked.
“Yes, indeed. There is a lot of family wealth. Oliver Benton is a little older than the rest of us. He graduated in law a few years ago from the academy. He is brilliant but a pauper. He is like you, living with relatives.”
“Isn’t there more?” Justin said.
“You. You are new and won’t have a problem being accepted. Rebecca has another friend spending the summer. All I know is her first name, Farah. She lives in Pancel. I don’t know the connection.”
“Is that big enough for a discussion group?” Justin asked.
Keith nodded. “Four at a minimum. The number ebbs and flows, I’m told. I started attending toward the end of last summer.”
“Who invited you?” Justin asked.
“Rebecca. I think her father was curious about my father,” Keith said.
They entered the kitchen.
“Did you shoot anyone?” Lisiane asked.
“Not this time. I hope you aren’t disappointed,” Justin said.
“It won’t be the first time,” Lisiane said. “I made sweet rolls for dessert. I suppose I can sacrifice one each.”
Justin kept his wrapped up in the napkin as Keith couldn’t wait and took a big bite out of his.
“Good!” Keith said to Lisiane with his mouth full.
“It’s time for you to leave,” Justin said. “I have to return to my studies even though Lisiane said I didn’t need to.” The two young men walked to the front of the farmhouse, and Justin handed his sweet roll to Keith. “Something to keep you going on your ride back to Manford.”
“Thanks!” Keith said. “We meet at 3 o’clock. The room number will be posted. It often changes.”
As Justin watched Keith ride off, he was anxious about meeting so many new people simultaneously.
Winston entered the kitchen from the back when Justin returned from the front.
“I’m not happy your friend barging into my training session with the hands,” Winston said.
“You didn’t seem to mind,” Justin said.
“I hope Lawrence Mason doesn’t hear of it. He might think I am building a revolutionary army,” Winston said.
“Are you?” Justin asked.
Lisiane broke into laughter at the kitchen sink. “Winston, you’ve been caught out!”
Winston sighed. “I am not starting an army, but I am training a squad for self-defense. There are reports of bandits moving into the hills each summer, and we have seen the signs, Justin.”
Justin knew enough not to pursue Winston’s motives for training the farmhands. Justin knew his friend had others shooting on his range.
“I’ll wash up for dinner,” Justin said. “I smell of gunpowder.”
“You aren’t the only one!” Lisiane said, staring at her husband.
Justin beat a retreat and washed up before remembering to look at his father’s papers, which he had recently moved from Grant’s manor to his room at the farmhouse.
He finally found the sketch he was looking for. It was a mechanism for loading bullets. Justin was surprised his father knew about them three years ago. He thought they were a recent invention. His father noted a magazine with bullets stacked on each other atop a spring. There was a slide with a mechanism that pulled the empty cartridge out of the barrel and let another bullet up from the magazine. The shooter pushed the slide forward, pushing the bullet into the barrel.
It was more than a sketch. Brian Spede had spent some time working on the mechanism, but some sketches were obviously missing. Had Grandpa Bertie sold those, too? Perhaps most of the fortune his Grandpa hid was from invention drawings he sold.
It saddened him to think of his grandfather’s betrayal. It certainly tainted the money that Justin recovered from his grandfather’s carriage barn. Justin sat going through the mechanism in his head. He thought he understood how it worked.
It amazed him that his father could come up with an idea like that, no matter how many iterations preceded the drawing in front of him. His father had to know about materials and how springy springs were and write up detailed drawings that could be manufactured.
Justin walked downstairs with an empty feeling. He hadn’t intended to be so affected by the drawing, but he had just plunged his feet deep into the mud of the past.
“What’s causing the sorrowful face?” Lisiane asked. “Was my sweet roll that sour?”
Justin chuckled. “I gave mine to Keith. He liked them, and I didn’t want to spoil my dinner.”
Winston walked into the room, shooing Mitchie and Aggie in front of him. “Felix will be down in a minute.” Winston looked at the folded drawing that Justin had put on the table.
“What is that?”
“My father’s work.”
“From your grandpa’s cache?”
Justin nodded. “It is a loading mechanism for bullets.”
Winston’s eyes grew. “To your seats,” he instructed his two youngest. Winston held out his hand.
Justin passed the drawings to his friend.
Winston looked at Justin’s father’s work. “Impressive. Someone was experimenting with a revolving cylinder, but this can carry more ammunition.”
“Ten bullets, it says,” Justin said. “You can carry more magazines already loaded.” He pointed to a paragraph scribbled in the margin. “The design can work for rifles or pistols.”
Winston nodded. “The magazine can be a longitudinal tube for a rifle. The cocking mechanism is still a pain.”
Felix arrived, and Winston was still concentrating on the drawing.
“Dear, it’s time to eat. Pull your eyeballs from the drawing, or I’ll do something drastic.”
“Magic, Mommy?” Aggie said, with glee on her face.
Justin smiled. Lisiane could pull some interesting tricks if motivated, and Winston was, at present, encouraging his wife. Lisiane gave Justin an evil grin and pulled a pearl-sized ball of water from Winston’s glass, and let it collide with Winston’s face.
Winston blinked with alarm, quickly giving the drawing back to Justin as he stood and began complaining to his wife.
“I warned you!” Lisiane said.
“But you didn’t have to…” Winston looked at the grins on his children’s faces. He used a napkin to wipe his face. “I am always happy to be dinner entertainment,” he said. “We will talk of that later,” Winston said to Justin, not as happy as his children.
“I’m sorry if I disrupted dinner, but I thought of this while on the range this afternoon,” Justin said.
“No. No. Are the rest of the drawings upstairs?”
“They are,” Justin said.
Winston’s face darkened. “Your grandfather sold complete plans; I’ll bet.”
Justin nodded. The sting of his grandfather’s betrayal was renewed with Winston’s comment.
“Dinner is served. Happy faces, everyone,” Lisiane said.
Chapter Ten
~
J ustin’s next visit to the bookshop had a purpose. He observed what everyone was wearing. He didn’t want to look the part of a bumpkin, but he didn’t want to come across as a dandy. He needed a fix on what to wear.
Lisiane had asked him to find some books on mechanical design since Justin had shown an interest in the magazine-loading drawing his father had made. He asked the man at the front desk where the books would be.
“You might find more of them in the public library under engineering. Hawser’s collection on those subjects is a little weak,” the clerk said.
“I’ll do that, then,” Justin said.
Before leaving, he walked around the bookshop area and the meeting rooms' corridors. He felt how he wanted to dress and left the coffee shop. He rode Phantom to the public library. He had visited the library more often while studying for the competency exam.
The librarian showed Justin where the engineering stacks were. Most books were for architects and civil engineers, but he found a shelf dedicated to mechanical engineering and design. After disregarding old books on weapons design, he found a book that was a collection of writings assembled in the last few years.
Justin took the portfolio and an introductory textbook that wasn’t too old to a table. Both items had labels that prohibited them from being lent. Justin hoped he could order them from Hawser’s Bookstore.
The textbook had basic design and a section on metallurgy that looked interesting. Justin had never considered the difference in metal strength, hardness, and flexibility. He set that aside since he would buy one of those.
The bound portfolio had descriptions of contraptions that Justin had never seen. He found one article that discussed the automatic loading of rifles. It was as if his father had written the words. Even the terminology was similar to Brian Spede’s notation on the drawing. He copied the author's name and firm: Richard Youngson of Castlemont Arms, Telsia.
Justin returned to the textbook, looking for a definition of hardened brass.
Another reader plopped a stack of books across the table, and a book fell onto the textbook.
“Sorry,” the young lady said.
Justin smiled. He encountered so few girls that were older than eleven. “No need to be sorry.” He handed the book to the girl.
“Your name, if I may ask?” the girl said.
“Justin Spede. And yours?”
“Rebecca Camber,” the young woman said. She had a rosy complexion and golden hair. Justin thought she was very nice-looking and well-off from how she dressed.
“What a coincidence,” Justin said. “We have a mutual friend, I think. Keith Mason.”
Rebecca giggled. “Are you the mysterious stranger he has invited to our discussion group?”
“I’m a stranger, but I’m not very mysterious,” Justin said. “I live outside of town at my uncle’s place. I’m afraid I’m an orphan.”
“Don’t be afraid,” Rebecca said. “I followed you from the bookstore. Keith pointed you out, and I wanted to meet you before the meeting.”
“I won’t change in two days,” Justin said.
“Ah, I know, but not knowing a soul is always awkward at first.”
“I know Keith. He’s been out to the farm where I’ve been studying for the Imperial Academy entrance examination,” Justin said.
“You have a tutor?”
Justin nodded. “One of my uncle’s friends. Actually, her husband works with me a bit, as well.”
“Are they alumni?” Rebecca asked.
Justin shook his head. “I think so. They are both smart, and Lisiane spent two or three years at the academy before she left.”
“Keith said you are his age and my age,” she said, blushing a little. “You should still be in public school if you are going to take the entrance examination.”
Justin gave her half a smile. “Formal school and I didn’t get along very well,” he said.
“And you expect things to get better at the academy?” Rebecca asked.
“The entrance examination is my goal, but I don’t know if I want to live in Telsia.”
“It’s a fun place,” Rebecca said. “I’ve only attended half a year and love it.”
“What are you studying?” Justin asked.
“Everything,” she said, smiling broadly. “That is a strategy if you don’t know what you want to do. My mother expects me to meet a nobleman in Telsia and marry early.”
“There are lots of prospects at the Imperial Academy?” Justin asked.
“At school and social events around the city,” Rebecca said. “You might like the atmosphere, or you might not. Keith isn’t a social person, but he is phenomenally bright.”
“He is that,” Justin said, rising from his seat. “I’m returning to Hawser’s to see if I can buy these books. I might be interested in mechanical engineering, but I’m unsure.”
“An inventor?” Rebecca asked.
“My father was an inventor,” Justin said.
“I will stay here and read two of these books. The other three were for show,” Rebecca said and winked conspiratorially at him. “I’ll see you soon.”
“Soon,” Justin said as he returned the books to the front desk and left the library.
The portfolio wasn’t available, but since Justin was ordering, there were two more recent releases in the catalog on firearm design. It would be two or three weeks before they would arrive from Telsia.
Justin rode to a different part of town and bought nicer clothes than anything he had, but they were not suitable for a ball, as Aunt Melinda declared when shown Justin’s choices.
Two days later, Justin rubbed his hands on his new trousers as he sat in the coffee shop of Hawser’s, waiting for the room to open up. He looked out the window at the street and wondered if he was doing the right thing. Rebecca seemed far out of his league, discussing social engagements and finding a man to marry.
He spotted her crossing the street toward Hawsers with a young man and another young woman. They had portfolios with them. Justin had brought a notebook that wasn’t as fancy, but he was glad others might be taking notes.
By the time Justin finished his coffee, Keith had found him, and they went to the third-floor meeting room. Rebecca and her two friends were already sampling pastries delivered to the room and sipping coffee out of little cups.
Rebecca came over to introduce her friends to Keith and Justin. “This is Farah Kent from Pancel. She is staying with me this summer.” Farah was almost the opposite of Rebecca. She was taller and thinner, with darker hair and a tanned complexion. She did have a nice smile, Justin noticed.
“And I am Darwin Underwood from Telsia.” Darwin thrust out his hand for Justin to shake. Keith shook hands as well, but the two already knew each other. “You will have to introduce yourself before we start so we can get a feel for how you can contribute to our group,” Darwin said.
Justin recognized that as a territorial statement. He wondered if Keith and Darwin fought to lead the group. He’d find out soon enough.
Another young man, a bit older than the rest, rushed into the room. “Sorry about that. I was finishing up with a client.” He looked at Keith and Darwin and then stared at Justin. “And you are?”
“My guest. He’s a prospective member,” Keith said. “My recruiting efforts only produced one candidate, Justin Spede.”
“Oh, I’ve heard of you,” the newcomer said. “I’m Oliver Benton, impoverished lawyer, and prospective intellectual.”
“I’m afraid I’m prospective everything,” Justin said.
“But you are the son of the late, great inventor, Brian Spede. The only survivor of a terrible carriage accident three or four years ago,” Oliver said.
“I’ve heard of Brian Spede,” Darwin said. “He was almost famous.”
“Almost, I guess,” Justin said.
The two girls giggled, and Darwin blushed.
“Let’s have some coffee and refreshment while Justin tells us his sorrowful tale. I’m sure there is a lot of pain there,” Oliver said. “You don’t have to blab your entire life story.”
The room was furnished with cushioned chairs with a side table beside each chair arranged around the room facing the center. On one end was a blackboard and a lectern. There was space for eight participants with two extra chairs in the corners.
Justin sat in an offered chair and concentrated his introduction on life after Pancel. Darwin perked up like Keith had when Justin mentioned training in firearms as part of his learning activities at Winston’s farm.
Darwin cut Justin off and pulled out a paper. “I took the liberty of writing out the first proposition to discuss this season.” He looked down at his scribbling. “Shall the town of Manford extend its limits to incorporate the estates and farms surrounding it?” Darwin squinted at Keith. “Perhaps we could generate an idea or two for the honorable Lawrence Mason, Keith’s father. Who shall go first?”
Keith stood when Darwin stopped. “I’m not sure there is a reason to expand the town limits. There seem to be no townspeople clamoring for more land, nor have I experienced anyone outside Manford wanting their property incorporated into Manford proper.”
